Fothergill, Charles, 1782-1840

Charles Fothergill was a naturalist, politician, author, printer and publisher. Born at York, England, in 1782 into a prominent Quaker family, he was devoted to natural history from childhood. At the age of 17, he published Ornithologica Britannica. The Wanderer, his next publication, appeared in 1803. In 1811 Fothergill married Charlotte Nevins of Larchfield and emigrated to Upper Canada in 1816. He plunged into the life of the colony. At the end of 1821 he was appointed King's Printer at York (Toronto). In 1824 he had become member of parliament for Durham riding. During the last ten years of his life, he succeeded in publishing an essay on the Quadrupeds of North America and in having another on The Migration of Salmon in the Rivers Tributary to the St. Lawrence read at the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec in 1835. He died in 1840.